Super Bowl commercials have always been a big deal, right from the beginning. You have a massive captive audience, suitable primed on beer and nachos to be as suggestible as possible. That’s why carmakers have always been some of the most eager purchasers of Super Bowl ad time, and why they’ve tended to use it for big swings, commercials that have the maximum appeal and can lure in the most buyers.
At least, that’s what most carmakers tend to do. But not Pontiac. For Super Bowl IV, way back in 1970, Pontiac ran an ad that featured the GTO, which seems like a pretty good idea, but especially focused on one option available for the GTO: option code W73, better known as Vacuum Operated Exhaust (VOE), or more evocatively, The Humbler.
Well, maybe the whole GTO, especially equipped with this option was called The Humbler. It’s not entirely clear, but The Humbler name was definitely used in Pontiac print ads:
Only about 233 GTOs ended up equipped with the Vacuum Operated Exhaust option. That may be the worst return on investment for a Super Bowl commercial ever recorded in the history of human culture. Here’s the commercial, just so you get what all the fuss is about:
There’s a higher quality but non-embeddable version here, if you’d like to really scrutinize it. Objectively, and out of context, this is an odd commercial: shot at Elias Brother’s Big Boy on Plymouth Road in Livonia, Michigan, it shows a blond guy in a GTO slowly rolling into the parking lot of a crowded drive-in burger joint, full of people out and enjoying their night.
Look at that GTO driver. He knows what he got.
People turn and look at the GTO with what seems like trepidation, discomfort. They don’t exactly seem happy this car has showed up. The driver pulls a knob on the dash, labeled EXHAUST MODE:
…and the GTO’s V8 burble becomes louder, more aggressive, a predatory growl of menace. The blond dude keeps slowly driving around, attracting more positive attention from some of the people, mostly women, who I guess find that the low rumbles of the V8 activates long-repressed desires in them to, um, I guess reproduce with this loudly slow-driving GTO owner. Dude then slowly leaves. That’s it.
Look at this dude. That’s a face of fear. You’ve been humbled, my brother in Chrysler.
The EXHAUST MODE pull-knob shown here getting all the ladies dizzy and leaving all the dudes in a state of cosmic dread actives vacuum-operated diaphragms that opened exhaust system cut-outs that let the mufflers be bypassed, for reduced back pressure, more power, and, most significantly, more noise. Here’s a diagram of the system:
The sound difference is pretty significant; you can hear it in action, and the difference when it’s de-activated in this video:
This kind of exhaust-loudener system is not uncommon on many cars today, ranging from Jaguar F-Types to Mustangs to Porsches, and almost all are activated with a button that resembles a pair of binoculars:
I bring this up because this VOE option proved to be way ahead of its time, and seems like an ideal choice for a car like the GTO, which is all about being loud and brash and, you know, muscle car-ish. It’s all about juvenile intimidation and posturing, machines for making throaty V8 noises and the occasional burnout. It seems perfect!
So why was it discontinued in less than a year, after only 233 were sold?
Ostensibly, it was because the VOE option would have been illegally loud in a number of states; but most sources seem to point to reports that GM’s executives were more angry about how the commercial seemed to be encouraging illegal street racing.
The dude in the car was pretty clearly posturing and looking for a street race of some kind with that car, cruising, if you will, in the more lurid sense of the word. GM was incredibly wary of being associated with promoting any sort of illegal street racing in the 1960s, and even had a ban on all forms of racing from 1963.
Being such a large company, they were afraid of undue scrutiny, and were fearful of possible federal anti-trust litigation. They didn’t want to attract any negative attention from lawmakers and regulators if they could help it, so they found themselves in the strange position of making cars like the GTO, seemingly designed for racing for pinks and doing burnouts at every stop light, but unwilling to encourage such behavior in any way.
So, the ad was pulled within a month, and the VOE option was discontinued. What I don’t understand is how these executives would have not been aware of a freaking Super Bowl ad run by one of its major divisions? No one bothered to show any of the suits this ad before it ran? How many lunch martinis were these guys putting away?
It’s all a very strange footnote in muscle car and advertising history. Also, that commercial makes me feel weird. Was that GTO driver actually having fun? It all seems so weirdly tense. Lighten up, buddy.
Top graphic image: GM